The Discreet Trader

This paper examines insider trading, specifically trades by corporate insiders around quarterly earnings announcements. Announcements were broken up into three categories: earnings above analyst expectations, earnings below expectations, and earnings in line with expectations. Trade data was collected from the thirty companies of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 2012-’13. The trades were sorted by purchases and sales by date and analyzed with the earnings report of which the trades were made. Only trades in the interval from twenty days before the announcement date to twenty days after the announcement date were considered. The prediction was that corporate insiders would leverage their inside knowledge to delay trading until after the earnings announcement. They would benefit financially by trading after the announcement and draw less attention from the SEC, as they delayed trading until the announcement became public information. However, knowing how the market would react would allow them to make a meditated decision. For an announcement that was below analyst expectations, corporate insiders should buy stock after the market reaction causes the price to drop. Our findings were that corporate insiders did in fact wait until the announcement day and overall were net buyers. The study will give better insights into how corporate insiders trade and how restrictions can be made to stop this insider trading activity

The Faculty Notebook, April 2017

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost

Social Media and Public Discourse Participation in Restrictive Environments

This dissertation investigates citizens\u27 use of social media to participate in public discourse (i.e., access, share, and comment on socio-political content) in restrictive environments: societies ruled by a hegemonic government where users face economic and infrastructure barriers to using digital technologies. Theoretical propositions are built inductively from an interpretive case study of how Cuban citizens use Twitter to participate in socio-political conversations. The case study resulted in the identification of nine affordances (i.e., action potentials) for participating in public discourse that Cubans perceive on Twitter. The findings also showed that the identified affordances enabled Cubans to achieve citizen goals: positive outcomes that made them more effective to counteract the government\u27s hegemonic ruling. The case study also resulted in the identification of six obstacle-circumvention use strategies that Cubans apply to realize Twitter’s affordances and the conditions informing these strategies. The case findings were abstracted into a conceptual framework to explain social media-enabled participation in public discourse as a mechanism of empowerment in restrictive environments. One research contribution is the proposition that social media empowers citizens in restrictive spaces by allowing them to take, in the virtual world, actions related to participating in socio-political conversations that they cannot take in offline settings. Moreover, this work advances that social media empowers citizens in restrictive environments because it increases their self-efficacy and motivation to counteract the government and the knowledge and access to valuable resources needed to be more effective while pursuing this goal. Another contribution was highlighting that media use in restrictive environments is an involved process requiring users to devise optimization strategies that usually involve the use of supportive technologies in addition to the social media app. The use strategies are informed by limiting societal, individual user-level, and circumstantial conditions. One of this work’s practical contributions is offering pro-democracy advocates in restrictive environments a clearer understanding of the effects of using social media. This dissertation reaffirms that social media-mediated participation in public discourse empowers citizens because it provides the emotional fuel and the knowledge that they need to engage in the tiring battle of pushing back against the government’s domination

Considering the ‘Illogical Patchwork’: The Broadcasting Board of Governors & U.S. International Broadcasting

At its December 2012 board meeting, members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) announced that they needed more time to consider a plan that would create a single executive responsible for day-to-day operations of the organization responsible for overseeing U.S. government-supported international broadcasting efforts. Operating with a budget of more than $700 million and producing content in more than 50 languages, the Broadcasting Board of Governors qualifies as one of the world’s largest international news organizations. Using discussions about the need for reorganization of the BBG’s management structure as impetus, this article discusses the role of the Broadcasting Board of Governors in American public diplomacy efforts and considers its accompanying responsibilities as a large, media management organization. Noting a dearth of academic and policy-oriented research focused on the BBG, this article seeks to provide a foundation for future discussion of issues surrounding its leadership, its performance and its future

Physical Activity Levels and Related Factors in Midwestern Rural Hispanic or Latino Adults

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine physical activity levels and specific intrapersonal, interpersonal and community physical environment factors that influence physical activity in Midwestern rural Hispanic or Latino adults. Instruments used in the study included: Self-Efficacy for Exercise Behaviors Survey, Social Support for Exercise Survey, Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (SASH), and Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS). Physical activity was measured by 7-Day Physical Activity Recall and ActiGraph® accelerometer data. In the study of 54 participants, it was found that there was a very low level of physical activity. For example, 97% of the time was spent in either sedentary or light physical activity according to the ActiGraph®data. These findings were similar to the results from the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall questionnaire. This research also showed that men were more active than women and those performing manual labor work were highly active. Results from a linear regression model showed percent moderate and vigorous physical activity (%MVPA, the ActiGraph® measure), the best model (R = .529) used the predictors of gender (p = .009), land use mix – access (NEWS) (p = .006), and street connectivity (NEWS) (p = .006). Results from a linear regression model showed Individual daily Energy Expenditure (IEE, the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall measure), the best model (R = .714) used the predictors of gender (p = .028), labor (p = .000), and pedestrian traffic safety (NEWS) (p = .040). Continued research based on an ecological model is necessary to determine more specifically what persuades or affixes physical activity behavior in rural Hispanic or Latino adults